6 Facts About Sportsbooks in the USA

Gone are the days of betting on sports through a “wise guy” in a back alley that you met through a friend of a friend. Nowadays, you can scratch your sports gambling itch via a number of websites that are totally legal (depending on where you live).

In fact, sports betting has come a long way in just the last decade. For the most part, everyone can access just about any game worldwide from the device in his or her pocket.

In this article, I’ll lay out 6 interesting facts about sportsbooks in the USA today.

1 – Football Dominates

If anyone has ever spent a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday night in the US from the months between August and February, one thing is very clear: football is king.

Each weekend during football season, tens of millions of dollars are wagered…which means these are the biggest pay days of the year for sportsbooks everywhere. The reality is that as much as people bet on football, they also lose betting on football with striking regularity.

But What Percentage of Overall Betting Numbers Is Made up Solely From Betting on Football, Both NFL and College?

In 2018, it was a staggering 36% combined. That means throughout the course of calendar year, more than one-third of all wagers were played out on the gridiron in that roughly six-month period sports fans revere as football season.

Just how excited are people to start betting on football? When the season finally rolls around, it’s the most significant month of the year. September isn’t just the biggest month for the sportsbook by a little bit either. The first month of football season brings in more action than October and November combined. But there might be more to the story here.

2 – September Is King

As mentioned in the first section, betting on football dominates the betting conversation. But that’s not the only reason why September is the best month of the year for sportsbooks.

In addition to football, baseball bettors begin to get more interested in the action as the postseason draws closer. Though baseball doesn’t make up nearly as high of a percentage of overall action (about 25%), the increased baseball action combined with the start of football draws huge numbers of gamblers out of the shadows.

In fact, sportsbooks take on more action, pay out more money, and keep more for themselves than in October and November combined. Football bettors know that this is an especially challenging time to gamble as unpredictability is at an all-time high early in the season. For this reason, Christmas comes early each year for sportsbooks.

3 – It’s Growing…Fast

If you think back just five or ten years ago, it’s hard to imagine a world in which sports betting commercials were regularly shown during your favorite events. Nowadays, you can’t watch a game without being inundated by several ads featuring different sportsbooks and different ways to bet.

With all of that being said, do the numbers back up the idea that sports gambling is growing at a rate rarely seen in any industry? The answer is unequivocally, yes.

The enthusiasm for sports gambling isn’t just growing due to legality, it’s simply becoming a larger part of the sports fan experience. In Nevada, where sportsbooks have been able to operate legally for years, $4.9 billion were wagered on sports in 2017. This number has grown at an unprecedented rate and is expected to top $70 billion in 2021. For those keeping track at home, that’s more than a 2,000% increase.

It’s too early to say whether or not this increase is sustainable, but one thing is certain – sportsbooks everywhere are preparing to scale their operation and gain as much of the betting market share as possible. At this point, the sky is the limit.

4 – Live Betting Is Surprisingly Big

The casual sports bettor might be more familiar with the routine of logging into an online sportsbook, placing a bet, and sitting back while the results play out on the field or court. While the vast majority of action is wagered before the start of an event, a significant percentage is bet while the game is in progress.

Both in-person and online sportsbooks have reported that live betting – meaning bets placed on changing odds during the course of a game – accounts for nearly 25% of all the action.

It’s hard to pin down one reason in particular why live sports betting has taken off at such a significant rate, but I have a few guesses that could explain it. First, live betting has become infinitely more accessible now that most gamblers have a sportsbook right in their pocket. Second, live betting is often used to recoup an initial bet that was placed at the start of a game and isn’t looking like a winner.

While live betting can provide a boost to your bankroll and your enjoyment of a game, just make sure you’re doing it responsibly. The odds on live bets change on a minute-to-minute basis, and it’s important to wait until the time is right if you want to maximize the benefits this type of betting has to offer.

5 – Futures Bets Are Bigger Than You’d Think

In addition to live betting, another form of sports gambling is growing in popularity: futures bets.

If you’re unfamiliar, futures bets (as the name would suggest), are wagers placed on the outcome of certain events that will happen down the road.

Now, these bets might not make up as significant of a percentage of overall action like live bets at 25%, but futures bets do account for around 10% of all money wagered. In an industry of this size, even 10% equates to billions of dollars.

The reason futures bets are so popular is because they provide value that is rarely seen with any other type of sports gambling.  For example, the “favorite” on many futures bets are +250, or even more. That means even if you choose the bet that the sportsbook deems most likely to hit, you’re still going to get paid more than double what you have to risk.

Obviously, the downside of futures bets is unpredictability. A key injury or trade can make turn the heaviest of favorites into a longshot. However, when you add up the pros and cons, as well as factor in the data seen at sportsbooks today, it seems like futures bets are going to make an impact moving forward.

6 – Bets Aren’t Just Being Placed On the “Big Four” Sports

I’ve already pointed out that football receives a huge amount of action when compared to other sports. After football, basketball comes in second in terms of bettor participation, with baseball following and hockey a somewhat-distant fourth.

Although these facts might be the equivalent of games going “chalk” (no upsets), there’s still more to the story that proves betting isn’t just for the team sports we watch so closely in America.

The latest data from one online sportsbook showed that roughly 70% of bettors who had placed a wager on one of the “big four” sports had also put some action on individual sports such as tennis or golf.

While it’s reasonable to note that these events receive nowhere near the same amount of action as, say, the NFL, it still proves that if there’s a sport to bet on, the public is happy to oblige…and the sportsbooks couldn’t be more thrilled about it.

Conclusion

It’s hard to imagine any industry taking off in the way sports gambling has over the past decade. Only time will tell if this success can continue on into the future.

One thing is certain, however. As much as Americans love rooting on their team, they might love betting on their team even more.

As legalization continues to work its way toward the federal level, it appears that the future of the sports gambling industry is limitless.